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In Alaska, President Vladimir Putin walked on a red carpet, shook hands and exchanged smiles with his American counterpart. Donald Trump ended summit praising their relationship and calling Russia “a big power ... No. 2 in the world,” albeit admitting they didn’t reach a deal on ending the war in Ukraine.
By Saturday morning Moscow time, Trump appeared to have abandoned the idea of a ceasefire as a step toward peace -– something he and Ukraine had pushed for months -– in favor of pursuing a full-fledged “Peace Agreement” to end the war, echoing a long-held Kremlin position. The “severe consequences” he threatened against Moscow for continuing hostilities were nowhere in sight. On Ukraine’s battlefields, Russian troops slowly grinded on, with time on their side.
The hastily arranged Alaska summit “produced nothing for Mr. Trump and gave Mr. Putin most of what he was looking for,” said Laurie Bristow, a former British ambassador to Russia.
The summit spectacle
Putin’s visit to Alaska was his first to the United States in 10 years and his first to a Western country since invading Ukraine in 2022 and plunging U.S.-Russia relations to the lowest point since the Cold War. Crippling sanctions followed, along with efforts to shun Russia on the global stage.
In another major blow, the International Criminal Court in 2023 issued an arrest warrant against Putin on accusations of war crimes, casting a shadow on his foreign trips and contacts with other world leaders.
Trump’s return to the White House appeared to upend all that. He warmly greeted Putin, even clapping for him, on a red carpet as U.S. warplanes flew overhead as the world watched.
The overflight was both “a show of power” and a gesture of welcome from the U.S. president to the Kremlin leader, “shown off to a friend,” said retired Col. Peer de Jong, a former aide to two French presidents and author of ”Putin, Lord of War.”
Russian officials and media reveled in the images of the “pomp-filled reception” and “utmost respect” that Putin received in Alaska.
Putin has “broken out of international isolation,” returning to the world stage as one of two global leaders and “wasn’t in the least challenged” by Trump, who ignored the arrest warrant for Putin from the ICC, Bristow told The Associated Press.
For Putin, ‘mission accomplished’
Putin “came to the Alaska summit with the principal goal of stalling any pressure on Russia to end the war,” said Neil Melvin, director of international security at the London-based Royal United Services Institute. “He will consider the summit outcome as mission accomplished.”
In recent months, Trump has pressed for a ceasefire, something Ukraine and its allies supported and insisted was a prerequisite for any peace talks. The Kremlin has pushed back, however, arguing it’s not interested in a temporary truce -– only in a long-term peace agreement.
Moscow’s official demands for peace so far have remained nonstarter for Kyiv: It wants Ukraine to cede four regions that Russia only partially occupies, along with the Crimean Peninsula, illegally annexed in 2014. Ukraine also must renounce its bid to join NATO and shrink its military, the Kremlin says.
